The study of history is at once a science, an art and a craft. Why? In what sense? This course answers this question with concrete case study. Different types of historical archives will be selected, and ways with which these archives are interpreted will be demonstrated. Major themes of historical study will also be introduced. To be more specific, this course focuses on the complex process of interaction between China and the West in the 19^th century.

Learning Outcomes

 By the end of the course, students will:
*   Have enhanced awareness and curiosity of professional historical knowledge and its relevance to today’s major issues or personal concerns;
*   Have enhanced judgment to distinguish narratives from facts;
*   Have enhanced ability to practice the craft, science and art of historical research;
*   Have enhanced reading, writing, and oral expression skills.

Two Important Websites

*   CUHK Blackboard in which all course materials are uploaded:
 https://blackboard.cuhk.edu.hk

*   CUHK History Department Course Website:
 https://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/course/2022232_hist5610/

 [To be revised and updated]

Lecture 01 (2023.01.14): Modern China and the Metaphors of Ship; Course Introduction

(1)   J. L. Cranmer-Byng ed., An Embassy to China: Lord Macartney’s Journal, 1793-1794 (1962), in Patrick Tuck ed., Britain and the China Trade 1635-1842 (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), Vol. VIII, 212-213.

(2)   J.L. Cranmer-Byng and A. Shepherd, “A reconnaissance of Ma Wan and Lantao Islands in 1794”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JHKBRAS) 4 (1964), 105-119.

(3)   Emperor Qianlong’s decree on the matter of “Kow-tow,” issued on 1793.08.14, in Zhongguo diyi lishi danganguan中國第一歷史檔案館編ed, Yingshi ma ga er ni fanghua dang’an shiliao huibian英使馬戛爾尼訪華檔案史料彙編 (Beijing: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi, 1996), 42-43.

(4)   Emperor Qianlong’s reply to King George III, in Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell ed., China Readings 1: Imperial China (London: Penguin Books, 1967), 99-107.

(5)   Liu E劉鶚 (1857-1909), trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, The travels of Lao Can 老殘遊記 (Beijing: Chinese Literature, 1983), 16-22.

2023.01.21: Public holiday – Chinese New Year! NO CLASS

Lecture 02 (2023.01.28): Western International Law (I)

Lecture 03 (2023.02.04): Western International Law (II)

(1)   Lin Xuezhong林學忠, Cong wanguo gongfa dao gongfa waijiao: wanqing guojifa de chuanru, quanshi yu yingyong 從萬國公法到公法外交：晚清國際法的傳入、詮釋與應用 [From international law to international law diplomacy: the introduction, interpretation and application of international law in late Qing] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2009).

(2)   Lam Hok-chung (Lin Xuezhong)林學忠, “Learning the new law, envisioning the new world: Meiji Japan’s reading of Henry Wheaton”, Japanese Yearbook of International Law 56 (2013), 4-36.

(3)   Civilized Warfare? Four British military officers’ accounts of the First Opium War:

(3.1) Lord Robert Jocelyn (Military Secretary to the China Mission), Six Months with the Chinese Expedition; or, Leaves from a Soldier‘s Note-book (London: J. Murray, 1841), 71-73.

(3.2) Sir Edward Belcher卑路乍(Commander of HSS Sulphur, a surveying ship), Narrative of a Voyage Round the World: Performed in Her Majesty‘s Ship Sulphur During the Years 1836-1842: Including Details of the Naval Operations in China, From Dec. 1840 to Nov. 1841 (London: Colburn, 1843), 152-153.

(3.3) William Dallas Bernard, Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis, from 1840 to 1843; and of the Combined Naval and Military Operations in China: Comprising a Complete Account of the Colony of Hong-Kong, and Remarks on the Character and Habits of the Chinese (London: Henry Colburn, 1844), 263.

(3.4) John Ouchterlony (the Madras Engineer Corps), The Chinese War: an Account of All the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking (London: Saunders and Otley, 1844), 96, 194.

(4)   Friedrich Engels, “Persia-China”, New York Daily Tribune 5032 (1857.06.05),  6. Also see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/06/05.htm.

(5)   A clip from The Bridge on the River Kwai, directed by David Lean (Horizon Pictures, 1957).

(6)   A clip from Huoshao yuanmingyuan火燒圓明園[The Summer Palace burnt down] directed by Li Hanxiang (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V26PRvdz-jg (56:40-1:04.08)

Lecture 04 (2023.02.11): Globalization, Imperialism and China: the IMC

(1)   Hans van de Ven, Breaking with the Past: the Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).

(2)   Tang Xianglong湯象龍, Zhongguo jindai haiguan shuishou he fenpei tongji 中國近代海關稅收和分配統計[Statistics of the IMC tax revenue and its distribution] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992).

(3)   University of Bristol, Chinese Maritime Customs Project 中國海關近代史研究項目 http://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/customs/

Lecture 05 (2023.02.18): Likin (1): Two Consular reports

 (1) Byron Brenan, “Report on the State of Trade at the Treaty Ports of China”, October 15, 1896, presented to both Houses of Parliament, May 1897, in Foreign Office 1897 Annual Series, No. 1909, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, in Robert L. Jarman ed., Shanghai Political & Economic Reports: British Government Records from the International City 10 (Slough: Archive Editions, 2008), 293-364.

(2)   Nicholas J. Hannen (British Consul at Shanghai), “Report for the Year 1896 on the Trade of Shanghai”, May 27, 1897, presented to both Houses of Parliament, June 1897, in Foreign Office 1897 Annual Series, No. 1951, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, in Robert L. Jarman ed., Shanghai Political & Economic Reports: British Government Records from the International City 10 (Slough: Archive Editions, 2008), 261-289.

(3)   Gong Zizhen, ed. Xia Tianlan夏田藍, Gong zizhen quanji leibian龔自珍全集類編 [Collected works of Gong Zizhen by categories] (1937 edition, rpt. Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 1991), 37.

Lecture 06 (2023.02.25): Likin (2): The Blackburn Chamber of Commerce Report

(1)   “F. S. A. Bourne’s Section”, Report of the Mission to China of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce 1896-97 (Blackburn: The North-East Lancashire Press Co., 1898), 1-152.

(2)   Timothy J. McKeown, “Hegemonic Stability Theory and 19th Century Tariff Levels in Europe,” International Organization 37, No. 1 (Winter 1983), 73-91.

(3)   Percy Ashley, Modern Tariff History: Germany-United States-France (London: John Murray, 1920).

Lecture 07 (2023.03.04): Imperialism

(1)   Nathan A. Pelcovits, The Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New York: Octagon Books, 1969).

(2)   P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, “‘Maintaining the Credit-Worthiness of the Chinese Government’: China, 1839-1911,” British Imperialism 1688-2000 (London: Longman, 2001), 360-380.

(3)   Algernon Cecil, “Chapter VIII: The Foreign Office”, in A. W. Ward and G. P. Gooch eds.,The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783-1919 3 (rpt. New York: Octagon Books, 1970), 539-542, 580-615.

(4)   “A Victory for Democracy,” Yes, Prime Minister, Episode 6, Series 1, 13th February 1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgLg9zQH3vU

(5)   Chris Cook and Brenda Keith, British Historical Facts 1830-1900 (London: MacMillan, 1984).

Lecture 08 (2023.03.11): Late Qing currency system

(1)   “The Proposed Land Investment Co., Limited”, North China Herald, Vol. 17, (1888.12.07), 637-638.

(2)   Han-sheng Chuan (全漢昇), “The economic crisis of 1883 as seen in the failure of Hsü Jun’s real estate business in Shanghai,” in Chi-ming Hou and Tzong-shian Yu eds., Modern Chinese Economic History—Proceedings of the Conference on Modern Chinese Economic History (Taipei: The Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, 1979),  493-498.

(3)   Kwong-ching Liu (劉廣京), “Credit facilities in China’s early industrialization: the background and implications of Hsü Jun’s bankruptcy in 1883”, comments on Han-sheng Chuan’s paper, in Chi-ming Hou and Tzong-shian Yu eds., Modern Chinese Economic History—Proceedings of the Conference on Modern Chinese Economic History (Taipei: The Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, 1979), 499-509.

(4)   Charles Ewart Darwent, Shanghai: a Handbook for Travellers and Residents to the Chief Objects of Interest in and around the Foreign Settlements and Native City (Shanghai; Hongkong: Kelly and Walsh, n.d.).

(5)   George Lanning, The History of Shanghai (Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh. 1921).

(6)   Andrea Lee McElderry, Shanghai Old-style Banks (chʻien-chuang), 1800-1935: a Traditional Institution in a Changing Society (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976).

(7)   John C. Ferguson, “Notes on Chinese Banking System in Shanghai,” Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXXVIL (1906 rpt. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Ltd, 1967), 55-82.

(8)   Hosea Ballou Morse (1855-1934), International Relations of the Chinese Empire III (1918, rpt. Folkestont, Kent, UK: Global Oriental, 2008), 324-25 n119.

Lecture 09 (2023.03.18): New Republic, New Citizen (1)

Lecture 10 (2023.03.25): New Republic, New Citizen (2)

(1)   Lu Xun, trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, “The Story of Hair頭髮的故事,” Call to Arms (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981),  39-44.

(2)   Our Own Correspondent, “Outports: Commeration Day at Shaohing,” The North – China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (1870-1941) [Shanghai] 21 Oct 1916: 130.

(3)   Henrietta Harrison, China (Inventing the Nation series, London: Arnold; New York: Co-published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press, 2001).

(4)   John Fitzgerald, Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).

(5)   Our Own Correspondent, “Chengtu: Empire Day In Far Szechuan,” The North – China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (1870-1941) [Shanghai] 17 June 1916, p. 622.

(6)   “Celebrating the Anniversary of the Outbreak of the Chinese Revolution: the Temple of Heaven Open to the Public for the First Time,” Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, November 09, 1912, p. 688.

(7)   “The Strong Man of China: Yuan Shih Kai Waiting for a Military Review to Pass at Peking,” Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, November 09, 1912, p. 688.

(8)   Wu Jianren吳趼人, Ershinian mudu zhi guaixianzhuang二十年目睹之怪現狀[The bizzare things I observed in the last twenty years] (first compiled between 1906 and 1911, rpt. Taipei: Sanmin shuju, 2017), 442.

Lecture 11 (2023.04.01): Semester Paper Workshop (I)

2023.04.08 Public Holiday – The day following Good Friday. NO CLASS

Lecture 12 (2023.04.15): Semester Paper Workshop (II)

Lecture 13 (2023.04.22): Semester Paper Workshop (III) and Conclusion

Assessment & Assignments

Semester Paper:    90%

Tutorial:             10%

1      Semester Paper

*     Minimum 5,000 English words including footnotes.

*     No bibliography is needed.

*     To be submitted to Veriguide on or before Monday 25 April, 2023 (two days after the last lecture). 

*     Delay of submission by one day leads to deduction of 10 marks, for instance, from 90 to 80, and so forth.

*     Topic of the semester paper: Qing Boxer indemnity to the USA: a study of the Despatches from US Ministers to China, 1843-1906

2      Tutorials

There will be eight tutorials, each lasts for one hour, following the lecture, starting from January 28th.

3   Honesty in Academic Work

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic contents.
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

Tutorials

*     Depending on the actual number of students, there might be one or two tutorial groups, each of 20 to 30 students. All students are required to join a group.

*     A student needs to attend about six tutorial sessions, beginning on 2023.02.04, after the lecture, from 1230 to 1415 (Group A); or from 1415 to 1615 (Group B).

*     A student needs to attend all tutorial sessions and make one oral presentation of about 10 minutes. In every tutorial about 6 students shall be presenting.

*     The tutorial document for oral presentation is: TO BE ANNOUNCED. Every student takes turn to present certain pages of this tutorial document.

*     This tutorial document is exactly the crucial historical document for the semester paper. So there is synergy between tutorial and semester paper. 

Tutorial Schedule

Tutorial Group A

Tutorial 1: 2023.02.04 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial 2: 2023.02.11 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial 3: 2023.02.18 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial 4: 2023.02.25 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial 5: 2023.03.04 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial 6: 2023.03.11 Saturday 1230-1415

Tutorial Group B

Tutorial 1: 2023.02.04 Saturday 1430-1615

Tutorial 2: 2023.02.11 Saturday 1430-1615

Tutorial 3: 2023.02.18 Saturday 1430-1615

Tutorial 4: 2023.02.25 Saturday 1430-1615

Tutorial 5: 2023.03.04 Saturday 1430-1615

Tutorial 6: 2023.03.11 Saturday 1430-1615

請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則，及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址：https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/。

學生遞交作業時，必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交，表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。

• 如屬小組習作，則所有組員均須簽署聲明；所有組員（不論有否簽署聲明及不論有否直接或間接撰寫有問題的內容）均須負上集體責任及受到懲處。
• 如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主，並經由大學「維誠」系統 (VeriGuide) 提交者，學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後，便會獲得收據，收據上已列明有關聲明。

未有夾附簽署妥當的聲明的作業，老師將不予批閱。

學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

學生將作業或作業的一部份用於超過一個用途（例如：同時符合兩科的要求）而沒有作出聲明會被視為未有聲明重覆使用作業。學生重覆使用其著作的措辭或某一、二句句子很常見，並可以接受，惟重覆使用全部內容則構成問題。在任何情況下，須先獲得相關老師同意方可提交作業。